Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic - Softcover

"A fascinating and horrifying book" (Denis Mack Smith New York Times)

"As good as non-fiction books get: it is crammed with detail and analysis, but reads like a novel" (Marc Babej Guardian)

"The very best on the modern mafia - brilliantly and thoughtfully telling a complex and messy tale... The characterisation and the twists of the plot have the deft touch of a novelist" (Robert Fox Sunday Telegraph)

"Totally absorbing and distinctly chilling" (Barry Unsworth Evening Standard, Books of the Year)

"Diligently researched and fluently written" (Diego Gambetta Independent)

Excellent Cadavers (a term used in Sicily to distinguish the assassination of prominent government officials from the hundreds of common criminals killed in the course of routine mafia business) tells of the remarkable investigation spearheaded by Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the two Sicilian prosecutors who in the 1980s took the war against the Mafia further than anyone had ever dared.

In 1992, aware that the two magistrates were without the complete support of the Italian government, the Mafia assassinated them. In death they were hailed as national heroes; the massive public outcry demanded their investigations be completed. The outcome: the toppling of crucial alliances that had forged political rule in Italy since WWII and the criminal indictment of Italy's most prominent leaders.